Vive Report

Fast Action Hero, by Sirius Sam, is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me; I must admit. When it first came out, it hooked me as it looked like a Michael Bay Action Movie experience with a side of Matrix’s Agent Smith for good measure. Once I finally bought it and jumped in, I was pleasantly surprised.

What started as a wave shooter essentially, has recently taken strides to incorporate missions and (I hope) a story of sorts, eventually. In the past you had 2 different locations, Mall and Hotel. You’d choose your level, difficulty, and gun (either dual hand guns, dual machine guns or rifle) and start the game. In game, you would have a few spots you can point to and move between, but there’s no freedom of locomotion, just point A to point B and back. Then, the Agent-Smith-like baddies will start assaulting you, trickling in through various doorways and entrances, and you do your best to take them all out.

With the recent update switching focus to a more mission based format, we’ve already seen a few changes in this direction. Now when you start a game, you can still select to play the “infinite” mode where it’s a wave shooter, but now you have the option to play the “Mission” based format instead. It takes place in the same levels, currently Mall and Hotel, but there is a defined start and end point. You start off shooting, taking out the baddies and after you’ve dealt with a set amount, a message will flash to move to a different spot. You are essentially making your way through the level, plowing down enough bad guys to unlock the next position to move to. Eventually you’ll be at the end of the set locations and your mission will be a success.

Again, there is currently not much of a story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. In a way, it’s generic enough where mostly any story would fit. It really is just an excuse to shoot at countless jerks in suits, while breaking everything around you as most in game assets are destructible, which is an awesome aspect of the gameplay. There is still work to be done polishing it up, but the framework is there. The two environments included so far look great and there have been fairly consistent updates. I’m hoping to see the updates amp up a bit, especially so now that the developer has official announced the new direction of the game (i.e. mission based).

Recently, there’s been fairly big update you can test out through the game’s beta channel via Steam. The beta update further refines the mission based format, adds a bunch of other optimizations, new assets and a new system for grab-ables, which more importantly opens up the door for melee combat! There is even a katana in the current beta, which I want to personally thank the devs for as I love katanas in VR.

To add to the fun, there’s a form of “bullet time” in game. As the enemies are shooting at you, any bullets that come close shift time to a crawl, allowing you to bob and weave to dodge the bullets heading your way. The level of bullet time is tied to the difficulty selected, so “easy” will give you heaps more bullet time than “hard.”  Thankfully the devs have included fairly thorough option menu, where you can change the bullet time settings, or even disable it entirely if it’s not to your liking. There are settings for quality, difficulty, amongst a few other options included.

If you like shooting guns, and decimating bad guys, you will likely find some fun in Fast Action Hero. Even with the game being a basic shooter, the user reviews are mostly positive. When my father tried my Vive for the first time, I actually threw him into Fast Action Hero, because I figured it’s a super simple, point and shoot, right to the action experience. If your VR library is lacking a title that fills that niche, look no further than Fast Action Hero.

While Fast Action Hero already dishes out some great action-packed shooting fun, I am looking forward to see what the title evolves into especially in regards to melee and a campaign, and thanks to early access we all get to be a part of that journey.

Check out Fast Action Hero on Steam $11.99

-dgtlhrt